Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Suckered Again?

Reviewing his cell phonehistory, she reaches for knifeand stabs ex-husband.

Dennis Kucinich is apparently refusing to vote “yes” on the Health Care Bill. He says it is merely a huge gift to the Insurance companies who are themselves the problem. What he did not say, perhaps wasn’t given an opportunity to say, or maybe would not even agree with me, is that we have been cleverly maneuvered into another terrible Hobson’s Choice. As it stands, starry-eyed liberals like me have a choice of voting for a bill that will provide some 30 million or so uninsured Americans with health insurance, obviously a good thing. But as this is to be mandatory it will in fact benefit the Insurance business enormously, especially if there is nothing like a public option. So the choice is clear, vote for the bill and give the Insurance industry 30 million more customers to fleece with terrible health care, or vote against the bill and maintain the status quo. In either case the Insurance industry wins. The only way the Insurance companies would not win is if they were left out of the health care business entirely, as they ought to be. As long as the Insurance companies are players there will be no meaningful health care reform, none, nada, zip, zero. Kucinich says Obama claims to want a public option but really doesn’t. Apparently this is so, as he has not fought for such an option and did not even allow a single payer system to be discussed or offered. Even a public option would not deal the insurance companies out, although it may make it a bit more difficult for them to continue ripping us off so outrageously. We need a single payer system if we are to truly have an efficient, economically sensible, and equitable plan. This could have been achieved by expanding Medicare to all, a system that works, is popular, and does everything that is required. This could have been phased in, first to 55 year-olds, the 45 year-olds, and down the line until everyone is covered. Kucinich is right to vote against this bill, but what is worse, it doesn’t matter which way you vote, you lose and the Insurance companies win, clever, no? Here we are, suckered again. This is too sophisticated a scam to have come about by accident. Insurance companies have no business in the health care industry, other than to make a profit, but why should we allow anyone to make a profit on illness and death? Oh yeah, I know, we pass the Senate Bill, the gift to the Insurance blokes, and then through reconciliation we improve it. This may or may not result in a public option, is going to delay the whole process, and delay is the name of the game for the opponents, and, as above, will still not rid us of the problem that is the Insurance companies. Assuming there does eventually emerge a public option, some seem to think this will eventually lead to a single payer system. Fine, but why not a single payer system now, why wait for thousands and thousands more to die because of lack of adequate health care just for the sake of Insurance company profits? Some complain that companies put profits above people, of course they do, that’s what a profit system is all about, it’s in the nature of the case, as inevitable as the sunrise and sunset, where do you think profits come from? Profits always come from some form of exploitation, they are not a gift from the heavens.

Profit is the name of the game here in the U.S. The same thing is going on with the Student Loan Programs. Why should government loans not be made directly to students? There is no reason why they should not, except that the banks would not make a profit by servicing these loans. Why should banks make a profit our of financing education that is vital to our nation’s health and success when there is no compelling reason they should do so? They shouldn’t, but they do, and they are not about to give up their profits if they can possibly help it. Banks and Loan companies exploit students and taxpayers, that’s how they make their profits. It’s not complicated.

Sometimes I think Dennis Kucinich is the only honest person we have. He is criticized for being too idealistic. I guess that is true, he would like to stop the “war” in Afghanistan, that is pretty idealistic as there seems to be no chance it will happen anytime soon, if ever. I find it impossible to believe that anyone with a brain larger than that of a bluebird believes Afghanistan is going to become a democratic nation, or that there will be a national Afghan army capable of, or even interested in defending the present government (or even any government at all, for that matter). There is no military solution to the “problem” of Afghanistan. So why do we continue to waste billions in the attempt? Because it has nothing to do with making Afghanistan into something it is not and will never be, it is because we have to continue to feed the military/industrial/political complex that has become the central feature of American culture. What would happen if we did not continue to manufacture tanks and planes and Humvees and cannons and bombs and stuff? Our economy would grind to a halt, not that it hasn’t already, but it would be much worse. And if we didn’t keep buying all the junk we buy what would we have to put in the millions of storage facilities that are springing up everywhere? And our landfill businesses would fail and there would be less demand for garbage collectors. We can’t keep just putting more and more of our surplus population in jail, the jails are already overcrowded. We have a true dilemma. I guess we’d better just keep fighting and creating “wars” as best we can because otherwise I guess we might be doomed. Too bad Dennis, don’t you see where idealism leads?

2 comments:

I like the way he took up the House's time for a Privileged Resolution on withdrawing from Afghanistan that only got 65 votes. Just proves how much outside the mainstream he is. I can admire idealists like him (and you, Morialekafa), but certainly don't expect him to actually get anything useful done.